On Thu, 03 May 2007 12:51:59 -0400, "(PeteCresswell)" <[email hidden]>
may have said:Per still me:
Quoted message said:I suppose an education in on-line fraud would be advantageous to
people buying/listing on Ebay but most folks would not bother reading
it.
I'd be one of those people - although "of interest" would be
closer than "advantageous" because I hardly ever by anything
there.
The Nigerian aspect of artificially bidding up a price lost me.
Price goes way up.
Seller consummates the deal.
Buyer sends money order or cashier's check.
Seller deposits money order or cashier's check and has their
account credited.
Buyer shows up and takes the merchandise.
Money order or cashier's check bounces two weeks later, causing
the seller's account tb debited.
But how does the buyer make out besides walking with the
merchandise?
You forgot the common scamster's additional step. Say the item closes
for $1527.00 on something worth $800 on a good day. The "buyer" says
"I was authorized to expend up to $2800 in total costs for an item of
this type, and I have been supplied with a cashier's check (or money
order, or bank draft, or whatever) in that amount. I have already
forwarded it to you via Federal Express, and you should have it in the
morning. Please deposit it immediately, and when it clears, my
freight forwarder will pick up the item and the balance of the
overpayment (to pay the cost of air freight), less $100 as a gratuity
for your assistance in this transaction."
If the sucker bites, the "buyer" is going to get both the item *and*
some cash, via a confederate who will show up, get the "purchase", and
possibly even take it to another ebay broker for resale...and split
the scammed cash between the scammer and the front man. The fake
check will bounce a week or two later.
If the fake check (or whatever) "doesn't clear", and the pigeon still
acts interested, they'll send a counterfeit money order if the first
thing wasn't of that nature to begin with. I have seen photos of
counterfeit USPS money orders good enough that they fooled USPS and
bank employees both, but the most commonly counterfeited ones are
other varieties.
In any event, if a buyer mentions shipment overseas on an expensive
item, start getting really suspicious. Credit card transactions from
some central African countries can be declined and reversed over a
month after they are initially recorded and apparently cleared...and
you have no way of knowing if a credit card number is from one of
those nations.
Personally, I limit my bidders to those in the US, UK, Canada and
Australia; on cheap stuff, I'll allow Europe as well. Sometimes, if
it's an item that might have any kind of export tech or copyright
issues, I'll limit the sale to US bidders only...and even that does
not preclude the fake-check scammers from making a run at the item,
since most of them have US confederates to grab the goods (and the
"overpayment" and vanish.
--
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